Many people desire and pray for rapid growth, for example when launching a new church, starting a new business, publishing a book, or starting an Etsy shop. Few people know how to manage rapid growth well. We pray for it, and may even anticipate rapid growth, but how do you really prepare for the unknown?
I’ve read of pastors who didn’t know how to handle rapid growth in their church. We’ve all seen the downward spiral of professional performers or athletes because they couldn’t handle the responsibility that comes with wealth and acclaim. Few people can handle affluence of power, prestige, or their pocketbook well.
I’m wrestling with some questions right now that arise after a period of rapid growth in our family. Three years in the process of adoption, not to mention transitioning from parenting two children to four children in a span of three months, rapid growth occurred unexpected, all be it, blessedly. One side effect of rapid growth in our family is the rapid decrease of space in our home. For months now we have wrestled with the idea of purchasing a home with a bit more space: garage, fenced in backyard, maybe an extra room. We already live minimally because we own a 1200 square foot villa with no garage. There just isn’t room for storing extra material possessions. I am constantly, out of both desire and necessity, paring down our toys, wardrobes, and household items.
As we have wrestled and prayed over purchasing a home with more living space. I have asked myself whether I really need more space to live a more fulfilled life; to function optimally as a home educating mom. I know I can make our space work, but do I need to? Wouldn’t I save myself sanity and effort with the addition of a fenced in backyard? Or would I find that in acquiring more, would it even make a postive difference in the long term?
For my husband and I, we know and have witnessed how the rest of the world’s poorest people live. We know that there are people in South America who spend their entire lives living on a trash dump in Honduras. We know that many people in African villages live in huts and serve what they have with a smile and immense hospitality towards those who enter their home. They make much of their meager offerings.
Even this week in reading, Daring to Hope: Finding God’s Goodness in the Broken and the Beautiful
As a side note, and this will be an entire post someday, read this quote from Daring to Hope: Finding God’s Goodness in the Broken and the Beautiful
So I guess what I would love to know is this, have you found that getting what you think you want makes you happier in the long run? Has a larger space, bigger office, promotion or fresh start met the needs you thought they would? I know that we can be content in whatever circumstances we find ourselves in. I know that. But how do we know when bigger becomes better and moving on leads to the more God wants for us? How do we know when we have a holy discontent that needs our attention and not the Land of Plenty’s (and plenty of people in the church) constant messaging that more is what we need and should go after?
These are the questions I am wrestling with today. Because when I look at people who have bigger and more I don’t see an overabundance of evidence that it makes a difference in their daily lives for the better. There are always things we as parents and individuals will be anxious over that goes beyond square feet and wide-open spaces for our children to play in.
It’s your turn. Tell me your experiences with making much of more or meager. When you felt freedom to go after the more did it lead to the better? I truly need to hear them.
You know I wrestle with this too. I feel like our big family could use a bigger space to spread out a bit and it would invite more opportunities to extend hospitality. But then I know the cost financially and timewise. I also know we are being financially wise and proper stewards of our money if we stay put. I feel that the bottom line is intentional prayer…which I don’t do but instead rationalize a need for change with practicality…and asking God for wisdom. God’s best for our family doesn’t look like the world’s best. Yet I find myself looking at the world’s best with yearning. Lord, help me look only to you for my needs and satisfaction.
Love you and your heart, Brooke. So much!
I know exactly what you are struggling with!! I Remember when the Lord spoke to me about considering selling and moving. I don’t think adoption was even in the picture yet. …I asked the ladies in my small group to pray about this because it definitely was not something I had planned to do!! I continued to pray and walk down that road…..things happened quickly!! I love our new place. There are days I miss our old place…..how easy it was to clean, the mortgage payment, that it was the first home I owned…..
But we love our new place with its small back yard, entering downstairs, having a garage, having 3 bedrooms. Having room for a crib in my bedroom when I foster again 🙂.
Praying for God’s leading….
I look back to the small duplex we had when my husband and I were young with a toddler and a newborn. The furniture lined the walls and we had to climb over our bed to get to the other side of the bedroom, but we were happy and hardly noticed how small it was apart from the comments of others.
Now we own in a four bedroom house with a lot of space and we are still happy and very grateful. We live just outside of a rapidly growing very nice area and have contemplated getting a newer home with a pool, but have decided agaist it because of the expenses which would triple our mortgage, property taxes, and insurance premiums.
In the end, I think having more room that meets your needs can be great if you can afford it, be grateful, be content, and serve the Lord in the way that he’s called you.
We too prayed for guidance about moving back when our three kids were smaller. We did, and I can say…
The kids were able to have friends over as they grew (helped us to know and minister to who they were hanging out with). We became the “hangout house”. This mother cherished that. One of my concerns was having too much space that we would grow somewhat apart. That didn’t happen. We didn’t let it! Then later, this same house helped house several foster children (even a sibling set of three so they didn’t get separated).
I guess my point for this is to consider what and how God will use “the more”,and the “better” is where we stand in it all.
After all things considered, we look back and praise God for the opportunity.